Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A hint of the supernatural spices the latest from a mystery master as two detectives try to probe the secrets teenage girls keepand the lies they tellafter murder at a posh boarding school. The Dublin novelist (Broken Harbor, 2012, etc.) has few peers in her combination of literary stylishness and intricate, clockwork plotting. Here, French challenges herself and her readers with a narrative strategy that finds chapters alternating between two different time frames and points of view. One strand concerns four girls at exclusive St. Kilda's who are so close they vow they won't even have boyfriends. Four other girls from the school are their archrivals, more conventional and socially active. The novel pits the girls against each other almost as two gangs, with the plot pivoting on the death of a rich boy from a nearby school who had been sneaking out to see at least two of the girls. The second strand features the two detectives who spend a long day and night at the school, many months after the unsolved murder. Narrating these chapters is Stephen, a detective assigned to cold cases, who receives an unexpected visit from one of the girls, Holly, a daughter of one of Stephen's colleagues on the force, who brings a postcard she'd found on a bulletin board known as "The Secret Place" that says "I know who killed him." The ambitious Stephen, who has a history with both the girl and her father, brings the postcard to Conway, a hard-bitten female detective whose case this had been. The chapters narrated by Stephen concern their day of interrogation and investigation at the school, while the alternating ones from the girls' perspectives cover the school year leading up to the murder and its aftermath. Beyond the murder mystery, which leaves the reader in suspense throughout, the novel explores the mysteries of friendship, loyalty and betrayal, not only among adolescents, but within the police force as well. Everyone is this meticulously crafted novel might be playingor being played byeveryone else. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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French dives in to the complex, socially perilous world of teenage girls in her fifth entry in the "Dublin Murder Squad" series (after Broken Harbor). Det. Stephen Moran sees his chance to leave the stultifying cold cases squad when a young girl shows up at his office bearing the photo of a dead teenage boy inscribed with the words, "I know who killed him." The unsolved case is high profile-the body was found at a ritzy boarding school-and Moran wants to make his mark, even if it means briefly partnering with the notoriously difficult Det. Antoinette Conway. Drawn out over a taut 24 hours, the novel plays with French's usual format by switching perspectives between the teenage girls and Moran. The result is haunting. French plumbs the depths of high school nostalgia while simultaneously shredding the "best days of our lives" myth with expertly drawn teenage social structures in all of their closeness, cruelty, and desperation. While there is only one murder victim, Moran, Conway, and their young suspects are all witnesses to the often crushing ramifications of standing out from the crowd. Verdict True to form, French succeeds yet again in both wholly satisfying and deeply unsettling the reader. Not to be missed. [Previewed in Kristi Chadwick's mystery spotlight feature "Pushing Boundaries," LJ 4/15/14; a September LibraryReads Pick.]-Liza Oldham, Beverly, MA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* A year after the brutal murder of a young man on the grounds of posh St. Kilda's school for girls, the case remains unsolved. Then Holly Mackey, a 16-year-old Kilda's student and the daughter of Dublin Murder Squad's Machiavellian Frank Mackey, approaches Detective Stephen Moran with a tantalizing clue: a card with a photo of the victim and the words, I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM, which she says she plucked from a school bulletin board. Moran, who met Holly when she was a nine-year-old witness to a crime, knows instantly that this could be his ticket into the elite Murder Squad if the famously combative Antoinette Conway, the lead investigator on the case, will have him. As the detectives learn more about the connections of the victim to two rival Kilda's cliques, they begin to understand that the girls are more devious, and possibly more dangerous, than they had imagined. Complex characters and a vivid sense of place are at the heart of French's literary success (Broken Harbor, 2012), and although Conway and Moran are fine protagonists, it is the members of the two rival cliques, and St. Kilda's itself, that make The Secret Place much more than just a solid whodunit. French brilliantly and plausibly channels the rebellion, conformity, inchoate longings, rages, and shared bonds, as well as Kilda's role in fostering them.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2010 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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In French's mesmerizing fifth Dublin Murder Squad mystery (after 2012's Broken Harbor), Det. Stephen Moran, who works in the cold-case unit, is biding his time until he can make the Murder Squad. When 16-year-old Holly Mackey, a colleague's daughter, shows up with a clue to an old crime, Moran sees his chance. A student at St. Kilda's boarding school, Holly vividly remembers the previous year's murder of Chris Harper, a popular teen from Colm's, the neighboring boys' school. From the St. Kilda's personal notice board known as the Secret Place, Holly brings Moran a photo of Chris with the words "I know who killed him" pasted across his chest. Moran joins forces with the murder squad's feisty Det. Antoinette Conway, and the pair visit the school, setting off a chain of events that ensnares Holly and her three best mates. French stealthily spins a web of teenage secrets with a very adult crime at the center. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary, TV & Film Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal
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Though ostensibly a crime novel-a young man is murdered on the grounds of an exclusive girls' boarding school in Dublin-the work is equally concerned with the ways teenage girls' intense friendships shape events and perspectives. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.